Abstract
Females undergo negative energy balance (NEB) during the early postpartum period to meet the lactation demands. The liver, being the key metabolic organ, plays a major role in handling NEB. Dairy animals handling high lactation demands are better models to understand the liver adaptive mechanisms during this phase. Therefore, we analyzed the liver transcriptome of dairy buffaloes during early postpartum. Liver biopsies were performed on three lactating buffaloes on the 15th and the 30th days of early postpartum and three heifers (controls) at the diestrous stage. Paired-end Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) identified 509 significantly differentially expressed genes (SDE) in the liver among the three groups. The SDE with log2 fold change > 3 and the unique SDE revealed the promotion of immune suppression (e.g., TCR), apoptosis (e.g., CCDC103), PGF2α synthesis, fat accumulation (e.g., BGLAP) and liver regeneration (e.g., FGF10) pathways, and the downregulation of antigen presentation (e.g., BOLA-DQA) on the 15th day of lactation. Consistently upregulated genes on the 15th and 30th days of early postpartum indicated the promotion of immune tolerance (e.g., IFITM3), medium and long-chain fatty acids’ oxidation (e.g., ACSM3), and lipid accumulation (e.g., INSIG1). However, consistently downregulated genes during early postpartum showed immunosuppression, the downregulation of gluconeogenesis from amino acids (e.g., DDO), and the biosynthesis of taurine (e.g., CSAD) and unsaturated fatty acids (e.g., SCD). Functional annotation and network analyses also indicated the promotion of immune tolerance, fat accumulation and decreased gluconeogenesis from amino acids, and estrogen metabolism on the 15th day of lactation. Overall, the liver showed immune tolerance as an adaptive mechanism during early postpartum of buffaloes.
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Abbreviations
- NEB:
-
Negative energy balance
- NGS:
-
Next generation sequencing
- BOLA-DQA :
-
Major histocompatibility complex, class II, DQ alpha, type 1
- CCDC103 :
-
Coiled-coil domain-containing 103
- PGF2α :
-
Prostaglandin F2alpha
- BGLAP :
-
Bone gamma-carboxyglutamate
- FGF10 :
-
Fibroblast growth factor 10
- IFITM3 :
-
Interferon-induced transmembrane protein member 3
- INSIG1 :
-
Insulin-induced gene 1
- ACSM3 :
-
Acyl-CoA synthetase medium-chain family member 3
- DDO :
-
D-aspartate oxidase
- CSAD :
-
Cysteine sulfinic acid decarboxylase
- SCD :
-
Stearoyl-CoA desaturase
- ANGPTL4 :
-
Angiopoietin like 4
- NEFA:
-
Non-esterified free fatty acids
- FFA:
-
Free fatty acids
- MAMPS:
-
Microbial associated molecular patterns
- KEGG:
-
Kyoto encyclopaedia of gene and genome
- GO:
-
Gene ontology
- NCBI:
-
National Center for Biotechnology Information
- STRING:
-
Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes
- PPI:
-
Protein- Protein interaction
- FPKM:
-
Fragments per kilo-base of exon per million fragments mapped
- GIMAP4 :
-
GTPase IMAP family member 4
- BOLA-DQA5 :
-
Major histocompatibility complex, class II, DQ alpha, type 5
- BOLA-DQB :
-
Major histocompatibility complex, class II, DQ alpha beta
- USH1C :
-
USH1 Protein network component harmonin
- M-SAA3.2 :
-
Mammary serum amyloid A3.2
- SAA3 :
-
Serum amyloid A3
- SLC22A16:
-
Solute carrier family 16
- GSTA1:
-
Glutathione S-transferase A1
- ECEL1 :
-
Endothelin-converting enzyme-like 1
- PPAR:
-
Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors
- DQA2 :
-
Major histocompatibility complex, class II, DQ alpha 2
- APOA1 :
-
Apolipoprotein A1
- APOA5 :
-
Apolipoprotein A5
- UBC :
-
Ubiquitin C
- SECTM1A :
-
Secreted and transmembrane protein 1A
- SH2D1A :
-
SH2 domain-containing 1A
- LOC789452 :
-
T cell receptor alpha chain V region 2b4-like
- PTGES :
-
Prostaglandin E synthase
- LOC617406 :
-
Serpin peptidase inhibitor, clade B (ovalbumin), member 6-like
- ncRNA:
-
Noncoding RNA
- LOC100296286 :
-
T cell receptor alpha chain V region RL-5-like
- LOC100300282 :
-
T cell receptor beta chain V region CTL-L17-like
- IFI27L2 :
-
Interferon, alpha-inducible protein 27-like 2
- HRAS :
-
HRas proto-oncogene, GTPase
- GEFR :
-
Guanine nucleotide exchange factor
- P2Y :
-
Purinergic receptor 2Y
- LOC100848101 :
-
Kinesin-like protein KIF13A
- TRNAR-CCG :
-
Transfer RNA arginine (anticodon CCG)
- LOC615055 :
-
Ef-hand calcium-binding domain-containing protein 4A
- LOC788915 :
-
Caspase-14
- LOC107131362 :
-
UDP-Glucuronosyltransferase 2B33-like
- SERPINE2 :
-
Serpin family E member 2
- TPGS1 :
-
Tubulin polyglutamylase complex subunit 1
- ASIP :
-
Agouti signaling protein
- LOC101902932 :
-
Uncharacterized LOC101902932
- C8G :
-
Complement component 8, gamma protein
- ASPG :
-
Asparaginase
- SPON2 :
-
Spondin 2
- LOC785540 :
-
Cytochrome P450 2C31
- LOC107133155 :
-
Apolipoprotein C-III-like
- C4A :
-
Complement component 4A
- LOC100337213 :
-
Adhesion G protein-coupled receptor E2
- MT2A :
-
Metallothionein 2A
- MT1E :
-
Metallothionein 1E
- APOL3 :
-
Apolipoprotein L, 3
- ABCA9 :
-
ATP binding cassette subfamily A member 9
- GDPD1 :
-
Glycerophosphodiester phosphodiesterase domain-containing 1
- DEPDC5 :
-
DEP domain-containing 5
- MINOS1 :
-
Mitochondrial inner membrane organizing system 1
- S1PR1 :
-
Sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor 1
- PIK3CD :
-
Phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit delta
- IGFBP1 :
-
Insulin-like growth factor binding protein 1
- LOC511161 :
-
Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase
- NKIRAS2 :
-
NF-KB inhibitor interacting Ras like2
- LURAP1L:
-
Leucine rich adaptor protein 1 like
- SPTCL3:
-
Serine palmitoyltransferase long-chain base subunit 3
- KLF10 :
-
Kruppel like factor 10
- LOC536097 :
-
Tyrosine-protein phosphatase non-receptor type substrate 1
- ACTA2 :
-
Actin, alpha 2, smooth muscle, aorta
- MTHFD1L :
-
Methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase 1-like
- OAS1 :
-
2′,5′-oligoadenylate synthetase 1
- OAS2 :
-
2′,5′-oligoadenylate synthetase 2
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Director, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute and National Agricultural Science Fund, India, for providing the infrastructure and financial assistance (Grant No. NASF/GTR-5005/2015-16), respectively, to this work. Thanks to Mr. Ashwani Kumar, Director of NXGenbio Life Sciences for custom NGS analysis and Dr. Mamta Pandey for editing the tables and figures. The authors do not have any conflict of research and financial interests.
Funding
The National Agricultural Science Fund, India, provided the financial support to this work (Grant No. NASF/GTR-5005/2015–16).
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SKO and DS designed and organized the research work. SS, NG, and DaS performed experiments. SS and SKO analyzed the data. SS, DS, and SKO wrote the manuscript.
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A total of six healthy buffaloes considered in the present study were approved by the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee of the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal (Approval no. 95/16).
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.
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Singh, S., Golla, N., Sharma, D. et al. Buffalo liver transcriptome analysis suggests immune tolerance as its key adaptive mechanism during early postpartum negative energy balance. Funct Integr Genomics 19, 759–773 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10142-019-00676-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10142-019-00676-1